The Economics of Free Plants Let us begin with a number: $380. That is what a mature Ficus lyrata — the fiddle-leaf fig, that totem of interior-design aspiration — costs…
The Case for Reading About Gardening (Instead of Just Watching Videos) There is a particular kind of futility in watching a twelve-minute YouTube tutorial on pruning roses while standing in…
The Day You Realise You've Been Calling It the Wrong Thing There is a particular moment that comes for every gardener who has moved beyond the supermarket orchid. You are standing in a nursery — perhaps at the Flower Market on Prince...
The most expensive mistake a Hong Kong gardener can make does not involve plants. It involves ignoring what is underneath them. A garden is, before it is anything else — before it is a collection of specimens, a colour scheme, a view, a...
The Fear Every gardener has stood in front of a plant with a pair of secateurs and frozen. The rose that has grown too tall. The hydrangea that has become a tangled mess. The fruit tree that produced nothing last year and probably won't...
The single most widespread error in gardening is not overwatering, though that kills more houseplants than any other cause. It is not underwatering, though that runs a close second. It is not choosing the wrong plant for the wrong place,...
There is a peculiar kind of discipline required to place a single stem in a vessel and call the arrangement finished. It goes against every instinct the amateur flower arranger possesses. The hand wants to add. The eye, trained on...
